Process Optimisation

I am passionate about helping my clients to transform the productivity and profitability their business. I can help you to increase performance of your operational, manufacturing and business support processes by margins of up to 40%, by:
  • doing more with less resource,
  • shorting lead and cycle times,
  • lowering finished goods and WIP inventory,
  • reducing production defects
  • reducing failure demand (for service processes)

Everything your business does, it's routine day-to-day operations, is quite simply the result of a following a process, whether it be manufacturing, ordering, payment, invoicing, timesheets, new account setup, status reports, and everything else that makes the business tick. Some processes, often called "value streams", touch your customers directly; many support these core processes internally. Poor processes mean your business is under-performing, with lower efficiency leading to higher costs and poor customer service.

Twenty years ago the Chairman of Toyota Motors, Fujio Cho, made this stark observation:

Every company's processes are unique. As companies grow they tend to end up with a mish-mash of paper forms, email templates, spreadsheets, shared documents, and ad hoc knowledge necessary to handle day-to-day business. Most of the time this disorganization results in problems such as lost paperwork, missed deadlines, missing or incorrect information, and long completion times. This is what is often called "Red Tape". In the end, red tape hurts the customer, and then your bottom line suffers.

When was the last time you reviewed your company's processes?
• How have they developed since they were introduced?
• Are all your processes still necessary?

Business processes must evolve to accommodate the ever-changing requirements imposed by the economic climate. So regular tuning is necessary to maintain operational efficiency. Optimised processes ensure coordination across functional organisations. This optimisation gives you better control, lower costs and improved business performance.

Is Your business overly dependent on specific people?
• Do any of your processes rely on particular people (if they left tomorrow, how would your business cope)?
• Are your processes performed the same way by everyone?
• Have people changed processes to meet their own needs or the way they think is best?

People-dependent processes make your business vulnerable. For consistency of outcome, processes must be performed the same way by everyone - and captured. As Michael Gerber (author of "The E-Myth") points out, "if it ain't written down, you don't own it".

Do all staff understand your processes?
• Which ones are critical to your business success?
• Which activities add value, and which just waste resources?
• How are you safeguarding and improving process knowledge?

Do you know the cost of your processes?
• Do you know what the cost of doing business with each of your customers?
• Are you actively improving your processes, managing out delays and work in progress, reducing lead time the cost of non-value-adding work?
• Do you have real-time measurements of your processes?
• Do you actively monitor your processes and initiate remedial actions when service levels are about to breached?

Gartner found that Busines Process Management (BPM) has helped organizations survive by identifying ways to improve business processes and cut costs at the same time. BPM gives companies visibility into processes that are key to cost management. BPM is a lifeline in this troubled economy. It helps companies find and avoid hidden costs.“It's a Matter of Survival”.

— Elise Olding, Gartner

I have many years of experience of process-mapping and optimisation. This experience includes a range of clients, from blue-chip, through public sector to SMEs and in a range of industry sectors, from credit cards to cake-making! I can help and mentor you and your team to understand how the business works today, establish a roadmap for improvements that will deliver real results and genuine ROI for your business and help you to carry them through.

I first assess the organisation's effectiveness to deliver the value required by their customers through its processes. Then I design, initiate and help to steer an improvement programme of specific waste (inefficiency) removal projects that eliminate activities and practices that add no value from the customer's perspective. By drawing on tools from philosophies such as Total Quality Management, Lean and Systems Thinking and Six Sigma I develop a programme that is tailored your needs rather than applying a formulaic “one-size-fits-all” solution. I work with the organisations’ own improvement teams so that all the changes implemented can be sustained.

Let me work with you to take out costs surgically that add no value to the customer. This will will reduce lead time, inventory and wastage, improve quality and control, increase capacity and workplace morale. PLUS - you will NOT be charged until I understand the scope and nature of your problems and we have agreed a set of objectives, an outline programme and a start point.